When the iPod emerged in late 2001, it solved some major problems with MP3 players. Unfortunately for Apple, problems like that don’t exist in the handset business. Cell phones aren’t clunky, inadequate devices. Instead, they are pretty good. Really good.”

I’ve always been totally baffled by iPhone doubters, and by people who thought any smartphone before it was any good at all. I was there at the Steve Jobs keynote when the iPhone was announced, but this has nothing to do with his famous reality distortion field. I like gadgets but there was no smartphone before iPhone that wasn’t terrible. The best ones were just a bit less terrible than the worst ones. In 2006/2007 it was absolutely clear that the iPhone was the first one that was really worth paying attention to, and it has been ever since. I’m telling you, it was dead obvious. The doubters were just that clueless.